Contrary Polish River Market

*taps the mic* Is this thing on?

Sorry to have abandoned you in the www, readers! Life has been a bit crazy this year. I hope you  have all been well and stayed entertained and engaged with the lovely Bec and Co. It doesn't even bruise my ego not being missed since your were in such capable hands :)

For today's post I have this lovely purple shimmer from Contrary Polish. River Market was on my wish list for quite some time. In my quest for long-time lemming Takko Lacquer Kiss the Sky, I became....well....obsessed with beautiful purple polishes. In polish and Pokemon, I gotta catch em all! This one does not disappoint. Formula is good, I have three coats of squishy goodness plus topcoat in the swatch pics below.

 And, because I couldn't resist...macro!

Have a great week, my polished pretties! Indie Amy out.

*drops the mic*

Swatchday Sunday: Squeaker Doodle Polish

Press Sample

Happy Sunday, y'all! Tonight I have swatches from a new indie nail polish line launching on February 14th: Squeaker Doodle Polish. The first collection, named Story Booke, is inspired by the TV show Once Upon a Time.

First up to bat is Captain Swan, a black polish with red micro glitter and medium red square glitters. My square glitters didn't want to come out and play. I e-mailed the maker about this, but to tell you the truth, I prefer the polish without them. It has a nice depth and glow from the micro glitters and doesn't need the larger glitters in my opinion.Pictures show two easy coats, formula is good and opacity was easy to reach. The black is really nice and inky and there's no one in the blogosphere that should be surprised that I love a black and glitter polish.

Next up is Chipped Cup. This is an irridescent blue polish with a gold holographic micro and tiny hex glitters. I was pleased that this one built up to good opacity in just two coats. I also read on the seller's page that it can be used as a layering polish. This one is very unique to my collection, I haven't seen anything quite like it on the indie market, which is quite a feat. This was the surprise favorite of the collection for me. Photos show two coats with topcoat.

Third is Comes With a Price. This one is a glitter topper in a clear base with purple and green glass and micro glitters, purple holo glitters and some random chrome glitters. The glitter mix in this one is really well balanced. Good coverage is achieved in one coat and it looks like a galaxy mani on your nails with hardly any effort at all. Second favorite from the collection. Swatch pics show one coat over Cult Nails Nevermore.

Next is I'll Always Find You, a really nice champagne gold with silver shimmer. The color on this one is flattering the shimmer gives it a little more "oomph" than your run-of-the-mill mainstream gold. Pics show two coats and topcoat.

Then came Let's Play, a green with copper micro glitters. Shown is two pics with topcoat. This one is a little brush strokey and dries a bit gritty. I would suggest maybe using two coats of topcoat.

Last but not least is The Queen. This is a purple with red and purple holo micro glitters.Pics show two coats with topcoat. Again, I would recommend two coats of topcoat.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the collection. Formula on all of them is consistent and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that even the lighter polishes from the bunch built to opacity in just two coats. My top picks would be Chipped Cup and Comes With a Price.

*Edited 3/10/14: Updated shop link - anm

Stamped Valentines Mani

Sup, blog world? Just popping in tonight with a quick stamped mani I did for Valentines Day. 

Polishes used: Lime Crime Lavendairy, Sally Hansen InstaDri Rose Run, China Glaze Dandy Lyin' Around, Zoya Arabella and Pipedream Polish All  These Diamonds (on thumb, see below)

Nobody's putting a ring on it, so I stamped a bow on it.Stamping plates used: Winstonia 102 and FUN9. 

Look, Ma! Just hand!

Okay. That's all she wrote for tonight. Especially since I used up all my *ahem* awesome *ahem* jokes in the captions. 

Go paint your nails!

IndieAmy

Just Another Mani Monday

Happy Monday, lovelies! And Happy MLK Jr. Day! I wouldn't ordinarily post two days in a row, but I didn't have a title pun for Tuesday, so off we go :)

I have a quick mani to share today. I was on Instagram earlier and saw my sweet friend Deliah 's adorable Valentine's Day notd. I still have some residual mani block, but I wanted to try my hand at that cute little love letter accent nail. Et voila. I made it so.

Colors used: Sation Delete Your Junk Male (pink), Digital Nails Sparkle Franken (middle finger), Cult Nails Tempest and black striper. Random heart glitter was in my nail art stash, I have no idea from whence it came.

And that's all she wrote for today. Just a snippet really. Hope you have a fantastic, four-day work week. 

S.W.A.K.,

IndieAmy 

The Color Purple

Come for the Alice Walker reference, stay for the manis. That's how I roll. Sorry for being AWOL, new blog friends! I've been in a bit of a mani slump. Don't you just hate it when that happens? But now it's lazy Sunday and I finally have a mani to share! So let's hop back on the polish pony.

I don't know if any of you shopped the recent Cult Crypt sale, but I sure did. To the detriment of my wallet and the delight of my inner Cultie, I shopped that sale and then shopped it again (true story, bros). The first of my orders arrived Friday and I rescued it from the office yesterday. Fast forward to today and it was finally time to play with my new purple polish babies. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do an ombre mani or a gradient mani, so I took the easy way out and did both.  Here's the base:

I used Charming on the thumb, Flushed on the index finger and Vicious on the pinky. Double accent nails are gradiented with all three. 

The gradient was fairly subtle and I wasn't totally in love with it. So I went back to the very first rule in the nail girl handbook: when in doubt, ADD GLITTER. 

That magic in a bottle is Pipe Dream Polish All These Diamonds. And it. is. stunning. The cardinal rule of nail girls has never steered me wrong. And this time was no exception.

Here's my favorite shot of this mani. 

And, because I still feel slightly remorseful about slacking on my collaborative blogging responsibilities (though I did leave you in the excellent and perfectly polished hands of Bec, Gari and McAmy!), I have a parting macro shot. 

Flushed. Wowza!

And that'll do it for me for today. Hope y'all have a fabulous three-day weekend and get lots of polish playtime in!

-IndieAmy